Soho Crime Fest 2: Cara Black Brings Paris (and Aimée Leduc!) With Her

Dave and I love what Soho Crime has done for the international mystery scene: publishing series by authors who live or write from experience of international cultures. Meeting four of the Soho authors at once last week -- well, we couldn't pass it up, even though it called for a lot of driving.

Actually, we'd already met James Benn briefly at Kate's Mysteries (Cambridge, Mass.) last December. Trim, elegant, the exact opposite of the cartoon version of a librarian (his "day job"), Jim ensured that the panel of authors could relax and enjoy the questions, conversation, and capacity crowd. (I'll offer a longer piece on James Benn's novels later in the month; I've enjoyed them enormously.)

We'd seen photos of Garry Disher (Australia) and Henry Chang (New York's Chinatown) that matched pretty closely the authors as they strolled in. Reading all of Disher's Inspector Hal Challis investigations has been a huge treat; watching Henry Chang's career expand from his debut with CHINATOWN BEAT to last fall's YEAR OF THE DOG is a pleasure, and we shared the excitement as he told us he was about three-quarters done with the first draft of "book three."

So Cara Black, creator of Aimée Leduc in an award-winning series of Paris mysteries, was the author we were most curious to meet in person. How French would she look? What kind of accent would she have?

Coming in through the back door of Stellina's (a smashing Italian restaurant in Watertown, Mass.), Black instantly brought that sense of Paris into the room. If those weren't French jeans she was wearing, I'll eat my page -- and Dave instantly fastened his gaze on her French sailor's scarf in bold stripes of black and white. And yes, when she speaks, even though she lives in California, her voice has the lilt and gentle hesitations of someone to whom French is a second linguistic home.

"I think Paris chose me," Black reflected. "I grew up in a Francophile family where food and discussion over dinner was very important." In the 1970s when she first went to Paris, she got the sense of a collection of villages -- "not the Paris of the berets and the baguettes," she quipped, and not Hemingway's Moveable Feast (which of course she's read). But 20 neighborhoods that saw themselves as complete and particular. "I'm trying to find the flavor and the uniqueness of each part of Paris." And in each one, she's placing a mystery. So far, that's:

Murder in the Marais (1998)
Murder in Belleville (2000)
Murder in the Sentier (2002)
Murder in the Bastille (2003)
Murder in Clichy (2004)
Murder in Montmartre (2005)
Murder on the Ile Saint-Louis (2007)
Murder in the Rue de Paradis (2008)
Murder in the Latin Quarter (2009)

For each one, Black travels again to Paris (often bunking on a friend's couch) and re-immerses herself in the feel of the neighborhood, while working out the plot. She does much of her writing in Paris too, but also in California, where she carries the scenes with her -- images on the wall, maps, more. Getting up in the morning, she writes, and she commented that if she doesn't check her e-mail, she gets a lot done! She said, "Once I've got to page 100, I've got my place [Paris neighborhood], and then I timeline it and I finish it and then I rewrite."

One plus of listening to Black within the multiple-author event was the range of questions people asked, especially those who know this author well. Prompted by someone excitedly asking her to retell it, she revealed how her research led her to firing a gun with the Delta Force in Paris. Wow! Here's a link to that story in her own words.

Most of all, I enjoyed hearing Black talk about Aimée Leduc and how the series is shaped around this computer security pro turned accidental detective. "Aimée is flawed, vulnerable," Black explains. "It makes a better story that way." And, she finds, this sets Aimée into the great tradition of the "lone detective."

Of course, the effect can be a bit different on the other authors: After listening to how pleased Cara Black is that she has a framework of Paris locales that promises 20 Leduc detective novels (based on those 20 "villages" of the city), Henry Chang suddenly suggested, "I'll have to go to each of the fifty or sixty Chinatowns throughout the world!"

More on Henry Chang and his writing, later this week.

Two Memorable Crime Novels for Winter Reading: Con Lehane's THE RED SCARE and Cara Black's HUGUETTE (December Releases)

New York City in 1950 held neighborhoods far more separate than they are today: From Hell's Kitchen, where Mick Mulligan is starting his new chapter as a private investigator (PI), to the neighborhood where a black cab driver's family lives, means Mick's white Irish self steps into danger, threat, and abuse. But this isn't just his first case—it's his only case, dangled in front of him by organized labor leaders, which Mick's already aware means just a doorway away from organized crime. 

Besides, Mick can't work his own trade any longer, thanks to the anti-Communist rage sweeping the nation:

This was the reasoning—I went to meetings with Communists, I ate lunch with Communists, I agreed with Communists on certain things—that got me fired from my job as a cartoonist (we liked to call ourselves animators) at the Disney studio, won me a place on the Hollywood blacklist, and brought me back to New York City, where I hung out my shingle as a private investigator.

Mick's investigation and his own safety are tangled with union politics and high-powered maneuvering by men ready for serious power. He's not a serious "Red" himself, although he believes every working person should get a fair deal. But that's enough to paint a label on him, leading into what author Con Lehane calls THE RED SCARE MURDERS (release delayed to Dec. 16). 

And the label can swipe in all directions, as his taxi driver, an old friend of the man on death row that Mick's trying to exonerate, makes clear:

"You one of them fellas who go out and save the guy the cops thought done it? ... That's what Harold needs. Harold didn't kill no one. ... Maybe it was them Communists he got himself mixed up with."

Lehane's language is perfect for this page-turner crime novel, with phrases like "his tone as sincere as a priest in a pulpit," and plenty of Irish immigrant heritage tossed in.  One of Mick's helpful allies even mentions Hollywood detective fiction author Dashiell Hammett, in an effort to encourage the would-be PI: "I guess he told me this because Hammett had been Red-baited too."

Swing along for the smart and sometimes devious women, the men puzzling out the politics of the time, the darkness of urban angers and the gentle efforts of friendship. THE RED SCARE is a classic of the urban noir genre, with plenty of quick twists and not much gore. Besides, there are such strong parallels in the social politics of Lehane's 1950s and our own 2025 that you could imagine this feisty crime novel was just written last month. Great fun and good reading.

THE RED SCARE is one of the November releases from Soho Crime, an imprint of Soho Press, and definitely has a place on the winter to-be-read (TBR) stack, for both nostalgia and good feelings.

Another December release from Soho Crime, HUGUETTE by Cara Black (Dec. 2), might qualify for some "trigger warnings." Set in Paris at the end of World War II, it's jammed with rape, everyday sexual and physical abuse, and messy violent deaths of nice people. 

But for any reader of Black's excellent Aimée Leduc Paris PI series, this is a must-read. The first few chapters flip back and forth between 1947 and 1945, not always smoothly. About a third of the way into this 300-page historical police and crime novel, the name Leduc comes up, and Cara Black fans know we're on our way into a significant "back-story" to the popular series. How much trust can Huguette Faure place in the "flic" (cop) who offers to help her? Who murdered her father and stole the family business? What are the secrets behind the grown children who now surround her, and who don't know what was stolen -- or, more poignantly, WHO was stolen -- from this attractive, determined, and impoverished young woman who'd been given such a bad hand by history and crime as a pair?

"These cocky soldiers needed to be shown they couldn't treat her like a kid," Huguette thinks as she puts herself in fresh danger with more questions. "Establish authority, her father would say, when dealing with black marketers."

But Black's double epigraph to the book includes a quote from Benito Mussolini's foreign minister Count Galeazzo Ciano, and it's one Huguette should keep in mind: "Victory finds a hundred fathers but defeat is an orphan."

If you can keep reading, with hope, through Huguette's grievous losses, Black's portrait of postwar Paris and her backstory to Aimée Leduc will be a gift to your mystery-loving soul. Buy two copies: one for a friend's holiday gift, and one to treat yourself to some willing Parisian distraction as you keep checking your lists. 

Long Tendrils of Threat: Cara Black's New Aimée Leduc -- MURDER IN THE PALAIS ROYAL

For the tenth time, Cara Black plunges us into the hectic life of computer security expert Aimée Leduc, in MURDER AT THE PALAIS ROYAL. And it's a wild ride, full of surprises, with damage to some gorgeous clothes, from a vintage Lanvin silk blouse to an Yves St Laurent top ... and most of all, to people that the spirited young detective admires and even loves.

While Aimée experiments with a promising new romance, terrible things are happening at the office of Leduc Detective. Her partner, René Friant, alerts her to a surprising electronic bank deposit into the firm's account, and later that same evening, someone shoots René, leaving him for dead on the office floor. All witnesses swear it was Aimée herself who'd murdered her partner! Since Aimée is, of course, quite sure that she was otherwise occupied at that time (oh my!), she leaps into the investigation, determined to clear herself from an increasingly convincing frame job.

Even her godfather doesn't believe in her innocence this time. What could René have done to provoke such an attack -- and who is masquerading as the Aimée to get the job done? There must be a trail leading from the security work they've been doing, no? But as Aimée's friends confirm for her, there's nobody who resents René. The conclusion sneaks up on her: This is about Aimée herself. Something she's tackled in the past has come back to bite her, with vengeance.

Readers of this vibrant series know that Black takes her security consultant into one "quarter" of Paris after another -- there are 20 of them -- and this time the source of evil lies in a coverup that Aimée hasn't dreamed exists. Its architect has an office in the Palais Royal, in a government office, where favors are traded and threats made on an everyday basis.

But Aimée Leduc's investment in friendships and family has roots that go even deeper. For instance, when she needs access to the grand museum of the Louvre, her name rings a bell with the guard:

"Leduc? I knew one. We called him Le Vieux, tall, thick moustache, broad shoulders."

And warm arms that held her when she'd been bitten by a dachshund in the park. Who took her for piano lessons; then for a hot chocolate afterward.

"My grand-pere."

The guard drew a breath. "Just this once. Don't ask me again."

Black's plotting is tight and tense, her scenes briskly knotted, and the movement of threat and escape like quicksilver across the pages. The best way to read this lively adventure is all at once, with a box of chocolates to one side. Leduc Detective may be a computer security firm on the surface, but Aimée's determination to save herself and her partner, if humanly possible, drives her to new extremes as a detective. And, incidentally, to fresh ways to analyze the potential for romance in her life.

Brava!

[NOTE: This Cara Black volume is scheduled for March release, but it's already available for online orders. While you're picking up a copy, look for the other March release for Black from Soho Crime: the softcover edition of MURDER IN THE LATIN QUARTER. As always, there's no pressing need to read these in sequence -- but number nine does have an aspect that races across the scene once or twice in number ten, and it's clear that number eleven is going to lean on both of them for background. Such fun!]

Bold New Aimée Leduc Crime Novel, MURDER ON THE QUAI, Cara Black

Someday I'll see Paris -- and when I do, I hope there will be an "app" for my smartphone that directs me to all the "quartiers" where the Aimée Leduc mysteries take place, with details of plot, and suggestions for where to enjoy the morning coffee-and-croissant or the evening dining and dancing. Wouldn't that be great? It's also an incentive to read these popular detective novels, set in that glittering and romantic city.  With MURDER ON THE QUAI, Cara Black provides her 16th title.

Long-time fans of the series will be startled to open this book and find a young Aimée, already clever at finding secondhand clothing with haute couture, struggling to do homework and prepare for a test in medical school! The book's actually a prequel to the other 15, and it introduces the reasons this stylish young woman will desert the classroom to take over her family's detective business -- as well as providing answers to many questions readers may have wondered about in the past, like how she started riding motorbikes, where her dog (named Miles Davis, a bichon frise) came from, how she met her super-hacker dwarf partner in crimesolving René, and -- most urgent of all -- the truth of how her father was framed and (gulp) met a dire end.

But if you've never read a Cara Black/Aimée Leduc mystery before, this one's still a great place to start. It opens in November 1989, on the weekend when the Berlin Wall was torn down. Quick math: that would be just 44 years since Paris's occupation, right? So of course, there's a plot thread involving Nazi brutality and gold, as well as Resistance fighters -- many still living at that time, as well as their children, and you know that part about how many generations will carry a crime with them? (Well, okay, the Bible says it differently, but you know what I mean, right?)

I enjoyed romping with Aimée through the Paris days and nights, and watching her grasp each hint and clue about both a crime she happens to investigate, and her own family's secrets. No wonder she chose a different route from medical school -- investigation and operating on a blend of sharp reasoning and fierce instinct suit her like a ... shall we say, like a tenderly aged Chanel jacket??

From Soho Press, which has been Cara Black's publisher from the start -- a gem of a prequel, indeed.

MURDER ON THE LEFT BANK, Aimée Leduc 18 from Cara Black

Who knows what goes on behind the scenes of a long-running mystery series? A few authors have the knack of making each fresh title seem as good as all the ones before it -- or better. But most go up and down a bit, or some titles appeal more to some readers, and so on.

Whatever the pattern is, Cara Black busted clear from it in her epic 18th Aimée Leduc mystery, MURDER ON THE LEFT BANK. Best yet! Each of Black's mysteries with the stylish Parisian detective, now a single mom with a network of support people, has focused on a particular quartier of Paris. This highly successful one begins with a lawyer in the 13th arrondissement, a friend of Aimée's, whose effort to take a shortcut with a compromising document results in the death of his own nephew. Stricken and guilt-wrenched, Éric Besson persuades Aimée to search for the now-missing document -- which leads directly to the crime and power syndicate that Aimée recognizes from murder and betrayal in her own family. Is her deceased father involved in the document? Does she need to stop yet another attack -- one that could affect her own baby Chloé?

Black's plotting is intense and acutely paced, with twists in each chapter and a smooth and powerful narrative that sweeps through the book. She deftly weaves in her usual details of her detective's passion for (gently used) couture clothing along while also slipstreaming her amazing detective agency partner René:

Aimée joined the applause as René presented the award. She then found a flute of champagne and him in that order.

"Nice speech," she said.

His large green eyes popped. "Nice outfit."

She'd worn her cowboy boots and a denim jacket over a black liquid sequin mini accessorized with a slouchy Céline boho bag. Give the outfits here, it was a good thing she'd left the couture in her armoire.  ... She groaned.

"Smile until it hurts," he said. "At least your sequins will grab their attention."

But Aimée is going to need a lot of replacement items for the adventurous pace of her investigation into Paris's power demons:

The garden had ended at a wall. Footsteps crashed in the dark underbrush. Aimée shined her penlight, revealing red smears streaking the glossy leaves.

Blood. Her knees trembled. Whose blood?

Aimée heard a high-pitched whine of a cat in heat and then René's shout: "Over here!"

Had René found Éric?

She forged ahead, continuing along the wall until she came to a woman's slumped figure.

Aimée stumbled, caught herself. "Karine?"

Karine's glassy-eyes stare reflected in Aimée's penlight beam. The tarnished, paint-spattered handle of a pair of scissors protruded from Karine's neck.

"Mon Dieu," said René.

Although Aimée is a private investigator, her adventures tend to feel closer to those of an amateur sleuth: probing each possible combination of means, motive, and opportunity, until things grow dangerous and her own degree of risk shows she's closing in on the criminal(s) responsible. In MURDER ON THE LEFT BANK, she's not just putting herself at risk -- her baby's under threat. So the pace accelerates, the threats multiply, and even her skillful friends may have trouble keeping her safe.

If you missed a few of the 18 previous books, you'll still handle this one well, since Black brings in just the right amount of detail from the earlier investigations. And it's so well crafted that it may well tug you back to the earliest books in the series (say, Murder in the Marais).

This is a great season to focus on collecting the first editions of Black's mysteries, since she's already hinting this series may come to a natural finale when all the districts of Paris have had their places in her mysteries. Good reading, via Soho Crime, an imprint of Soho Press. And ideal for the summer reading stack.

PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

Terrific Sniper Thriller from Cara Black, NIGHT FLIGHT TO PARIS

[Originally posted at New York Journal of Books] 

“Black's work is leaping ahead in power and energy, and Night Flight to Paris is one of the notable thrillers of the season.”

Cara Black, well known for her long Parisian series featuring PI Aimée Leduc, has come into her own. Her new series features a woman sniper who, in last year’s first book of the series, Three Hours in Paris, faced nightmares of capture and death as she works undercover for the British, on multiple assassination targets.

In the second book in this dramatic and fast-paced new approach, Night Flight to Paris, American Kate Rees thinks her failed mission (as she sees it) from 1940 will keep her in Britain as a sharpshooting instructor for the rest of the war. But in 1942 her former handler, Colonel Stepney, has pressing reasons to send her back to the occupied City of Light on a triple mission: a delivery, an assassination, and the exfiltration of one of her close friends, Margo, who's specifically demanded Kate's assistance.

But nothing's very clear in the rushed briefing to the mission, as Colonel Stepney seems to be more than a bit obscure, telling Kate: "‘A good undercover legend is like a diamond. Crafted to meet the four Cs—the carat, cut, clarity, and color. They sparkle so brightly you can't look past them.’ Diamonds were hard. Was Stepney saying something else here? ‘Much of your mission depends on what happens on the ground after you land, and how Margo plays it. We can't know anything for sure.’ Plan. Pivot. And re-plan. Hadn't Wilkes drilled that into the trainees? Or as her pa would say, ya gotta be ready to turn on a dime, Katie.”

When Stepney issues Kate a cyanide suicide pill, that confirms how risky this mission will be. And it's complicated by the mess Kate left behind two years earlier since there is a warrant out for her arrest in Paris, and she'll have to be in heavy disguise as a result.

Black ramps up the tension in every plot twist, and offers an unforgettable experience of both wartime Paris and the sheer guts and creativity needed for undercover work. 

“She'd walked into a setup. Her own damn fault. ... Under her Red Cross Cape, she slid her 9mm Welrod's 12-inch cylinder, containing its bolt, barrel and baffle, down her sleeve. It took seconds, during which she never broke eye contact with the Nazi.”

In contrast to Black’s Leduc books, this new series avoids swaddling the action in romantic questions, which in turn leaves Kate Rees clearer about her own capacity, able to plan swiftly, and incisive in questioning what’s coming at her and responding from strength, despite some obvious flaws in her preparation:

“In the garage, Kate opened her bag in the creaking cabinet, ready to change into the Wehrmachthelferinnen uniform. Sickening Nazi symbols decorated the sleeves. Would it fit her big-boned frame? With this uniform and the stolen ID, she’d have credentials and blend in unnoticed. But the few phrases of German she’d picked up left a lot to be desired. Face it: the moment she opened her mouth she’d be dead.”

Overall, Black shows that her transition from the Leduc detective series to this thriller format is an excellent choice. Although there are a few inconsistencies at chapter jumps—maybe from all the adrenaline in crafting this high-suspense, high-threat adventure—Black's work is leaping ahead in power and energy, and Night Flight to Paris is one of the notable thrillers of the season.

 PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here. 

Aimée Leduc Risks All, in MURDER AT THE PORTE DE VERSAILLES, by Cara Black

This 20th adventure of the style-conscious and cash-poor Parisian detective Aimée Leduc takes the single parent into a collision of dates and pressures, and Cara Black ramps the tension up with page-turning plotting that never relaxes.

It's November 2001—do you recall those first few months after 9/11, when the world had become (for Americans in particular) a much more frightening place? With bomb threats and danger "codes" and new forms of airline security? 

All that and more are resonating for Leduc, as she hosts a birthday celebration for her three-year-old daughter, mourns her father (he'd died on the same date), and begins to consider leaving Paris behind, to live more safely on a farm with her little daughter's father. But wait, that would also mean leaving behind her detective agency, and her close friends and colleagues, too.

Before the pressure has a chance to reach decision point, a crime shatters the family-and-friends gathering: Boris Viard, who left the party to go back to work and pick up his forgotten gift for the child, is desperately injured in a bomb explosion at his workplace, the Laboratoire Central de Police. Now it's a crime scene, for MURDER AT THE PORTE DE VERSAILLES.

Fans of the series and newcomers alike will guess quickly that by sending her little one away with papa to the farm in order to concentrate on clearing Boris of accusations that he set the bomb, Aimée makes an unexpected gap in her emotional life—one that another investigator may sense and be drawn toward.

Or is it just her detective skills that counterterrorism pro Loïc Bellan is recruiting?

"You owe me," Aimée said. "Plus, I'm your colleague now."

She put her hand on his arm. He turned, an intent look in his eyes. She inhaled the leather tang of his jacket, realized how warm his arm was through his sweater sleeve. The heat he generated just sitting there. She noticed the length of his eyelashes.

Idiot. Stop it. Heat flushed her neck.

Never get involved with a flic.

Especially a flic her father had a history with.

The effort to clear Boris will take all the investigatory skills and connections that Leduc and her detection partner René can muster. But it may also cost her more than she can afford.

Cara Black's narrative skills and suspense-laden pacing have never been better. The absence of that adored daughter frees up Leduc to push harder and absorb extra risks, and without details of little sticky hands, babysitters, and bedtimes, the action moves with power and authenticity. 

New to the series? Don't worry, there's no catch-up needed. Long-term fan? Enjoy Black's surge into her best writing yet.

PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

The Best Cara Black Yet: Solid Suspense in THREE HOURS IN PARIS

Once in a blue moon, an author leaps from one genre or segment of writing, into another. And either it's an epic fail -- or it's WOW! Cara Black just made the WOW leap, in switching from her well-loved but long (and increasingly predictable) series featuring stylish Parisian detective Aimée Leduc, into a tremendous espionage thriller.

So if you only love Aimée and her struggles to purchase designer clothing in thrift shops while juggling her newborn baby and a couple of love interests -- well, nobody's going to force you to try THREE HOURS IN PARIS (Soho Crime, April 7 release). But you'll be missing a lot if you skip the transition. And new readers will find this book immaculately plotted, riveting in suspense, packed with unforgettable characters, and opening a chunk of historical Paris that's often forgotten: the three hours that Adolf Hitler spent in the City of Light, as it fell into Nazi hands in June 1940.

The story opens with an instant in the fingers, eyes, and heart of Kate Rees, a young American/British woman hidden in a dome in Paris, waiting for her moment to compress a rifle trigger and assassinate the German leader. The only reason she fails to do so -- she's a heck of a sharpshooter -- is the presence of an unexpected person on the steps in her sights: the one kind of person sure to shatter her composure and steal from her the precious seconds her task demands.

And then, in a flurry of pages, we're back eight months, in the Orkney Islands of Scotland, learning why Kate's reached this critical moment in an occupied city, in a land where she doesn't belong. Only the harsh events of war can move a person as sharply as Kate's moved in the following hours, days, weeks, speeding toward becoming a secret military assassin.

Her deep wounds, her grief and anger, make complete sense. What doesn't make sense, really, is how she gets recruited for the task. But Kate's in no position to think logically about that, even though readers will get a hint of what's happening behind her back -- and may feel almost as enraged on Kate's own behalf. But most of the time, the action of this well-written, fast-paced thriller distracts even a careful reader from the hidden plots-within-plots that seem destined to wound Kate again, as she risks her life:

Kate's blouse stuck to her back and her breath came in pants as she kept walking. Only a few more stairs until she reached rue Muller. She felt warm air rush past her ears, raise the hair on her neck as footsteps thudded on the stairs behind her. Any moment she expected her arm would be seized.

Then German soldiers were rushing up from behind and past her.

"Halt!"

Just ahead on rue Muller the melon seller looked up, terror in his eyes.

A moment later he was surrounded ... Kate averted her gaze and kept to the wall. Bile rose in her stomach. She tied to block out the man's yells, which raked like nails across her skin. She wanted to reassemble the rifle and pick the brutes off one by one. A car bearing small swastika flags mounted on either side of the hood squealed to a stop on rue Muller. The doors opened and the old man was pulled inside.

Too late.

Keep moving.

Yes,  it's that fierce, all the way through. Next, of course, based on Black's past series, comes the question -- is this the launch of a new series? The final scene doesn't suggest it. But the date, 1940, leaves plenty of occupied Paris ahead. Could it be? If yes -- sign me up for more.

PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here. (But if you're specifically looking for earlier Cara Black reviews, click here as a shortcut.)

Books to Look Forward To: Peter Lovesey, Cara Black, Julia Spencer-Fleming, Eliot Pattison ... and Jan Merete Weiss!

Thanks to the process of advance review copies, I've been "reading ahead" by several months. Great news: There are some really, really good mysteries and thrillers coming out this spring.

First on the list -- because it's being released next week -- is MURDER IN PASSY by Cara Black. This is book 11 in Black's series set in the various quarters of Paris, and it's packed with action and exotic moments to savor. Aimée Leduc's godfather, Morbier, pleads with her to intercede in his personal life. But that turns political almost immediately, and between murder, police corruption, and Basque terrorists, the intrepid investigator in black coat, high-heeled boots, and wispy hair, with her Gallic shoulder shrug, is on the run once again. This will be a huge treat for Leduc fans; and if you haven't yet dug into the series, it's a good moment to start, as there's little that depends on the other volumes.

Black's tour to meet with readers and promote the book begins on Monday February 28 at M Is for Mystery, one of our favorite shops (San Mateo, CA); although a lot of her tour is on the West Coast, I'm excited to see she'll be in Boston on May 4.

Women writing mysteries are clearly influencing each other to dig deeper, write more powerfully, and tackle the toughest topics. Canadian author Louise Penny has blurbed the phenomenal new book from Julia Spencer-Fleming, ONE WAS A SOLDIER. Yes, it's Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne -- but it's also major issues on PTSD and how we all handle (or don't handle) it. I'll give a full-length review in a few weeks, when we're closer to the April release. (Meanwhile, I keep humming the song each time I type or say the name of the book -- anyone else having that experience??)

Also coming in April, a new series from Edgar Award-winning author Eliot Pattison, opening with ASHES OF THE EARTH. A provocative look at "post-apocalyptic" America through the eyes of a grieving and lonely middle-aged man, it's a classic Pattison work in seeking both spiritual centering and human friendships across generations, while solving an intense sequence of brutal crimes. A must.

[I'm also eager for Clea Simon's DOGS DON'T LIE to his its April release; the author will be at Kingdom Books in June. And there's a new Michael Connelly in early April, THE FIFTH WITNESS, but even before that, Connelly's Lincoln Lawyer comes to the screen on March 18 -- good discussions with Connelly on the film here, and see the movie trailer here.]

I'm elated that Soho Crime is bringing another debut author to print whose work is fresh, edgy, and irresistible -- that's Jan Merete Weiss, who grew up in Puerto Rico and brings the (literal) underworld of Naples, Italy, to the pages of THESE DARK THINGS. Pub date is May; you'll hear more from me before then. Fingers crossed, we'd love to have this author come to Vermont to talk about her work.

And Peter Lovesey's STAGESTRUCK won't be available until June, but for this highly satisfying classic mystery -- British, and rich with stagecraft -- it's worth the wait.

Soho Crime Fest Last Night in Mass.: Garry Disher, Cara Black, Henry Chang

We left home at about 11 a.m.; we got back about 12 hours later. All this, in order to attend an author event with all of the above, plus James Benn as MC and Kate's Mystery Books as bookseller of the night, at Stellina's Restaurant in Watertown, Mass.

Was it worth it? ABSOLUTELY.

I took notes like mad while the authors answered questions, panel style. Baseline info: Garry Disher, born in 1949, here thanks in part to a travel grant from the Australia Council for the Arts to Soho Books, to bring him to this side of the globe. Cara Black, born in 1951, is at home in San Francisco but flies to Paris for research for each of her Aimee LeDuc mysteries -- and recreates Paris in her mind when she's writing. Henry Chang, born in 1951 also, native to New York's Chinatown, three-quarters through the first draft for his third Jack Yu investigation. All three are among the Soho Crime authors carving out a new role for global fiction and cultural exploration, within their suspenseful mysteries.

And now, back to Garry, whose photo is above.

Garry Disher's police procedurals feature Inspector Hal Challis and his fellow investigator Sergeant Ellen Destry. Set in the Mornington Peninsula of Australia, about an hour and a half from Melbourne, they center in a region that's lush, has plenty of rain (trash that old Australia image you carry), lots of pine trees, a beautiful coastline, and wineries -- but also, said Disher last night, the doubling in size of some of the old towns of the peninsula combined with global economic issues has created social distress -- and this is what he mines as he writes. Admitting with a laugh that he inflates the murder rate in order to make better fiction -- Australia is nominally gun-free, and he says most of its murders are domestic, with either a knife or the handiest blunt object -- Disher sees his task as partly one of teasing the reader into prolonged suspense, over each book and over the series.

Writing from eight in the morning to "lunchtime" is his regular routine, and he spends the afternoons converting his longhand to typing (doing a "first edit" at the same time) and/or doing research. Usually working from a plan for each book, he places absolute trust in his instincts. And if the instincts lead him off the plan, he follows.

My favorite tidbit: He cites an Irish author as declaring each book, to be written, must have a character, a situation, and a promise.

More tomorrow on Cara Black; then Henry Chang; then I'm going to indulge in a long piece on James Benn, who held back last night in order to be a great MC, but whose new book, coming in September, features Northern Ireland and his latest insights into a long stretch of significant history.

Cara Black/Aimée Leduc Paris Mystery 17, MURDER IN SAINT-GERMAIN

Good news for Cara Black mystery fans -- number 17 in the very entertaining Aimée Leduc series is released today. And MURDER IN SAINT-GERMAIN takes the Parisian detective in a fresh new direction: sorting out an espionage-related set of crimes that cross her path.

That's not simple for the new and mostly single mom who runs a cybersecurity firm, where ideally she could stay at a desk like her detection partners, checking videotape and files. But even that turns active in this mystery, with a client demanding in-person service that sends Leduc scrambling for changes of couture -- and there's nothing like scrambling across rooftops encrusted with pigeon waste, to make a gal pull off her designer footwear and tackle the task barefoot after all.

Aimée Leduc is also scrambling for child care, as her darling baby, newly mobile, needs careful care, but the usual caregivers aren't available. When Melac, the baby's hunky but disloyal dad, steps up to cover the gap, a mysterious woman that Melac introduces as his mother (who knew?!) also enters.

Even while sorting out Bosnians, Serbians, and war criminals, Leduc's own confused past keeps claiming her attention. Is her godfather, Morbier, dying in a hospital as a result of her own actions? Has she been unfair? Do the Paris police care whether she was right or wrong, or will they simply all make her life harder as punishment for her injuring their hero, Morbier?

This one's a lively page turner, and even comes with a map to help put the detection and suspense into geographical perspective. Series fans will find it a "must"; if you're new to the series, it still reads well, but you may want to skip back a couple of titles to get background on the sometimes chaotic issues and relationships! Otherwise the sometimes choppy chapters can be a bit distracting.

As I write this, Paris is in the breaking news for an attack on a police officer at the cathedral of Notre Dame; better to have the crimes in the fiction instead. Add this one to the summer reading stack for light fun.

Checklist of titles, newest last, thanks to the Cara Black website:

Murder in the Marais (1999)
Murder in Belleville (2000)
Murder in the Sentier (2003)
Murder in the Bastille (2004) Murder in Clichy (2005)
Murder in Montmartre (2006) Murder on the Ile Saint-Louis (2007) Murder in the Rue de Paradis (2008) Murder in the Latin Quarter (2009) Murder in the Palais Royale (2010) Murder in Passy (2011)
Murder at the Lanterne Rouge (2012) Murder Below Montparnasse (2013) Murder In Pigalle (2014)
Murder on the Champ de Mars (2015) Murder on the Quai (2016)
Murder in Saint-Germain (2017)

PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here. 

Cara Black, MURDER AT THE LANTERNE ROUGE -- 12th Aimée Leduc Investigation

The twelfth Aimée Leduc investigation from Cara Black, MURDER AT THE LANTERNE ROUGE, is scheduled for March 6 release -- so it's a good time to pre-order a copy if you're a series fan. This one's a must: Black takes us back to the Marais, and to the Chinatowns of Paris, as Aimée searches for the missing girlfriend of her partner René. It's clear very quickly that the pretty young Meizi must be one of Paris's many illegal immigrants. But that's not enough justification for the violence surrounding Aimée's investigation.

Aimée bit her lip, adrift on a sea of conflicting emotions. She was not eager to voice more suspicions of Meizi, fracture her crumbling image, or hurt René. Every part of her wanted to protect him.

And as the young private eye races through ancient streets and buildings, in leopard-skin coat and high-heeled boots, her past and future are both racing toward her. Everyone's got eyes on her this time: partner, boyfriend, the flics, the secret service, and ... but of course, at least two groups of criminals. It's hard to tell where her godfather Morbier fits into all this, too.

Narrated in Black's staccato, caffeine-propelled style, MURDER AT THE LANTERNE ROUGE is one of the most complex investigations yet for Leduc. You can read it without knowing any of the other volumes, but it's richer, and even more suspenseful, if you've been reading along with the series.

Cara Black, MURDER ON THE CHAMP DE MARS (March Publication)

I love this image of Cara Black with her newest Aimée Leduc investigation: MURDER ON THE CHAMP DE MARS. This is the 15th in the well-liked series, and Aimée is at a critical point in her career and her personal life: She's a single mom to a six-month-old, struggling to keep her detection and security business profitable, while sleep-deprived and always late for everything (for those who don't have kids, here's the thing about it -- with each addition to the household, it's harder and harder to get somewhere on time).

MURDER ON THE CHAMP DE MARS open in Paris (of course!) with the detective once again racing the clock, trying to complete a surveillance task and still get home in time for her own darling baby's christening. But what should be a sweet (and brief) event with little Chloé and a few friends turns personally menacing, with the unexpected arrival of her ex-lover, father of her baby -- and he's not there to reconcile with her, but to introduce his newly acquired wife, as well as a hunger to take custody of the baby.

Small wonder that the arrival of an important clue to Aimée's own past, in the form of a boy who is a French Gypsy, one of the Romany people known in Paris as les manouches. The boy needs immediate help for his mother, who's in a hospital, on her deathbed, insisting on revealing only to Aimée a secret about Aimée's own (long-dead) father. It's a dangerous secret, one with roots in the Second World War, the concentration camps, and people still living who have betrayed each other.

Black does a masterful job of keeping the threads of suspense pulled taut, and braiding this complex investigation that puts Aimée Leduc and her family, friends, and career at risk in two directions at once. No, you don't need to read the others in the series before this one, although it would help you grasp why this detective wears Louboutin heels while on stake-out and considers a vintage Courreges dress to be part of her surveillance uniform -- so you may want to indulge in the others after devouring this latest title. The series is cleverly set in the 1990s, so technology has almost no role in the detection, and a quick mind and open heart and a team of allies are the essentials of the job. From Soho Crime, of course! (March 3 release.)

For the Gift List: Cara Black, MURDER IN BEL-AIR

It's time to shop for holiday gifts. One book for me, one book for you. Isn't that fair enough, from one book lover to another?

Cara Black's MURDER IN BEL-AIR, number 19 in her astonishing series featuring single-mom Parisian detective Aimée Leduc, may be her best yet. With a robustly complex plot that involves the disappearance of Aimée's own mother, as well as others, this crime novel plunges into both the Leduc family complications and the criminal enterprises of the City of Lights. And it's full of moments that capture this stylish detective at her most determined an active, like this:

She'd struck a chord. Thrown him off-balance.

"Where are you from?" she asked.

"Arles." His answer came too quick. And she'd never heard a Provençal accent like his. Not even close to that musical patois.

She saw him tense, and his lips moved—he was whispering something.

Merde. Was he wired?

With no more of a plan than to get the hell out, she accelerated, veering left as she kicked straight out with her right foot. Counted on the element of surprise. Her stiletto heel got him in the thigh. Wobbling over the cobblestones in the rain, the scooter shot forward and out of the courtyard.

Right into traffic. Her handlebars scraped a van, and she almost lost her balance. But somehow she kept going, weaving in the downpour with a cacophony of horns blaring behind her.

Black's author note at the start connects the plot to her own mother, and her lithe depictions of strong vibrant women in MURDER IN BEL-AIR contributes to the story's swift action and bright undercurrents. No need to read the other 18 titles first ... get this one for yourself for holiday-season relaxing, and give a copy to one of your best friends as well.

PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

Top Mysteries: What's on Your Latest List?

When Maureen Corrigan gave her short list of the top five crime and mystery novels of 2008, Dave and I jumped in delight -- because Dave Zeltserman's SMALL CRIMES, set in Vermont, made the list! Corrigan gave it first place, saying Zeltserman's version of crime noir belongs right up there with James M. Cain. My husband agrees, saying, "When you buy this one, buy at least two copies, because Zeltserman is the modern master of noir." Here's Corrigan's full list:

Dave Zeltserman, SMALL CRIMES Stieg Larson, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO Friedrich Glauser, THE CHINAMAN Richard Stevenson, DEATH VOWS Judith Freeman, THE LONG EMBRACE: RAYMOND CHANDLER AND THE WOMAN HE LOVED

You might notice that the last one isn't a mystery novel, but an homage instead to America's foundational writer of detective fiction. If you don't have time to read all five right away, make sure to tuck SMALL CRIMES into your schedule -- because Zeltserman is coming to Kingdom Books this summer, and you'll want to absorb the story, pull together some friendly questions, and come soak up the gift of time with this gifted writer. *** I'll toss another list here tomorrow. But Corrigan's list points out the immense change in how Americans are selecting mysteries to read: We've gone global. Some are older treasures just reaching us through long-delayed translation, while others are hot and new. I've already mentioned (and recommended) Leighton Gage's dark passage into Brazil's urban and rain-forest crime waves, BURIED STRANGERS. Just out this month, it's the second in Gage's Chief Inspector Mario de Silva series. His third is well on its way toward publication. Soho Crime brings Gage's work to us, along with Eliot Pattison's Chinese-occupied Tibet series and, as it has for years, the French detective series by Cara Black, featuring Aimée Leduc. Scheduled for release in March 2009 by Black is MURDER IN THE LATIN QUARTER. It's a gem that gives not just Paris and its personalities, but also the hazards and complications of politically based immigration into the city. If the mention of Haiti gives you a shiver of foreboding, you're ready to grab this one.

Guilt stirred her. "I had Papa, a childhood, food on the table." She stared at René. "But maybe she didn't. I need to know." "You're reading too much into this, Aimée." He meant she wanted to believe. Maybe a big part of her did. But she had to see proof.

Threat, disorientation, and sudden entanglements drag Leduc through the worst side of detective work. Pre-orders are available. During the holiday break I dipped into my first acquaintance with the Dutch writer who's so well known by his surname that that's exactly what's on the cover of his books now: not A. C. Baantjer, but simply BAANTJER. The February release of DeKOK AND THE DEAD HARLEQUIN is the latest in a long string of relatively old-fashioned, but also quite dark, police procedurals set in the lowlands among the dikes and windmills. Inspector DeKok, like many of today's silver foxes, hasn't yet grasped how to do a thorough Internet search -- but he knows how to delegate that labor, and he's patient enough to dig under the surface, find the motivations of the criminals around him, and make sure that when he catches them, something worth prosecuting will be documented. I found Smittenaar's translation to be mildly awkward, but sometimes that actually gives a better sense of cultural difference, marking this book as quintessentially European.

Somewhere in the maelstrom of his memories, DeKok searched for a handhold on this reality. He often prided himself on his inability to think in a straight line. He knew he was able to jump from one subject to another. He also knew he reached conclusions based on instinct and intuition as much as logic. He had confidence and reason, backed by an enormous amount of experience. His eyes followed the little girl's outstretched finger.

And the plot is a clever twist on the old "locked room" paradigm: here, an unlocked one, in which a battered body is cleverly arranged to suggest a macabre take on the wooden marionettes known as harlequins. Ironically, before the first death is discovered, DeKok and his partner Vledder receive a visit from an accountant who announces the murder -- but has an alibi that DeKok can't possibly deny. Of course, I can't do a binge of "foreign" mysteries without plunging into the British ones. Later this week I'll survey a good one by John Harvey and the newest John Le Carré. And yes, I've got opinions about SCARPETTA, and have we talked about Peter Spiegelman? His books are irresistible during a "deep recession." But that's enough for today.

Not Just French, but Parisian: New Aimée Leduc Investigation, MURDER IN PIGALLE

Cara Black takes us to one neighborhood of Paris after another, each the focus of one book in her Aimée Leduc investigations. This is the fourteenth, and the action involves the district of Pigalle -- nightclubs, bars, the kind of entertainment you don't want your kids knowing about (and maybe not your mom either, if you're not French!). So there's a double irony that Leduc's sleuthing keeps taking her back to this sketchy neighborhood, after dark, in the search for Zazie, the 13-year-old daughter of one of Leduc's friends. It's an investigation with urgency, because Zazie (what a kid!) has been following Aimée Leduc's example, trying to investigate a serial rapist who's terrorizing the neighborhood and a genuine threat Zazie's own peers. Has her "snooping" (complete with taking photos) made her a threat to a seasoned criminal? As the hours tick past, Aimée is increasingly sick at heart, knowing that kidnappers and molesters who hold a child longer are much less likely to release that child.

Complicating Leduc's trademark pavement-trotting in kitten heels and stylish clothing is her own condition: pregnant. She's got the world's longest lasting case of morning sickness, an obvious bulge on her belly, medical appointments to keep (with her assistant sleuth René backing her up, making suggestions about food and baby names and childbirth), and her emotions about "the Bump" are calling up new reactions to a missing child and danger to other girls. And then there's the matter of the baby's father. But that's too complicated to handle during this investigation, yes? No?

Black's Paris is full of energy and enthusiasm, as well as crime and love, and with Aimée Leduc, the most obvious choices are often half thought through, in the rush to uncover evidence, find a trail, do something, now! The combination of threats in MURDER IN PIGALLE drives the plot at breakneck speed -- for me, this is the best Aimée Leduc investigation yet!

Of course, there are a few threads left dangling for the next book (smile). But all in all: a lively and highly satisfying (and very Parisian!) mystery!

PS -- It's from Soho Crime. Of course!

Randy Wayne White, David Baldacci, John Sandford, Mark Billingham, Cara Black, Philip Kerr, Diane Liang: Crime in the City

A couple of clicks will pull you into interviews with all these authors, thanks to the stunning National Public Radio Series "Crime in the City." Locations, respectively, are Florida, Washington DC, St Paul (MN), London, Paris, pre-war Berlin, and Beijing. What a treasure trove...

New Releases: From Berlin to Japan to Paris to South Africa, and More

Time to catch up and look a few weeks ahead, for new books of crime fiction and detection.

I'm delighted that Soho Crime has brought out David Downing's Potsdam Station in softcover, just in time for readers to catch up with this crossover series that merges espionage and suspense in Berlin during and immediately after World War II. Postdam Station covers the risks and dangers for British journalist John Russell as he negotiates for safety for his family members -- and maybe himself -- during the final brutal days of the war. Gripping in the portrayal of the human costs of loyalty, betrayal, and starvation, it includes segments from the point of view of Russell's fiercely surviving German actress girlfriend Effie. And it's the perfect intro for Downing's next book, Lehrter Station, due out in June.

Now is also the time to catch up with the Jade De Jong investigations written by South African Jassy Mackenzie. Random Violence, My Brother's Keeper (audiobook; print book coming later), and Stolen Lives (audiobook; print book coming later) propel Henning Mankell's African landscape toward modern urban crime fiction, gritty, dark, and rewarding to read. Mackenzie's new title, The Fallen (titled Worst Case in Europe), comes out in the United States in April.

Another April release will be Viral by James Lilliefors, an award-winning journalist who lives in Florida. The action in Viral develops simultaneously in Uganda and in Washington, DC, building a political thriller with a medical subplot that's all too believable. Consider me already a fan of this series-in-the-making.

Last for today, I'm excited that the next novel from Alan Furst, Mission to Paris, is coming in mid June. It's been too long since I've mentally roamed the cities and mountains of Eastern Europe with this master of between-the-wars espionage and manipulation. I can hardly wait.

Reminder: Today is the release date for The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura, and for the new Cara Black adventure featuring Aimée Leduc, Murder at the Lanterne Rouge. Aren't we lucky?

More Signed Mysteries, in Two Forms ...

Our winter work here has included making sure a larger proportion of our mysteries are signed. Many are signed by the author on the title page, the classic way to add value and delight to a good first edition. We attend many author events, to meet the authors and ask them to add their John/Jayne Hancock to fine volumes.

But what can be done about authors we don't get to see -- like Westerners who stay in Texas or along the West Coast, folks in the Deep South where we never manage to visit, and those hard-writing British, Irish, French, even Palestinian authors that we may never meet in person?

Dave's spent the winter getting in touch with many of them and asking them whether they are willing to sign bookplates that we send to them -- nice elegant ones, archivally stable, that we simply lay into the books (we don't do any "sticky stuff" here). People have been incredibly generous in saying yes. If you can't quite read the image below, it's the signature of phenomenal award-winning British author Minette Walters. Peter Lovesey, Matt Beynon Rees, Lee Child, Cara Black, Lawrence Block, and many others have also helped in this way. Others, like Joe Lansdale and Linda Barnes, recently signed books directly for us. More arrive daily, as the old expression goes.

So do browse the collection again, and watch for updates. Check each of our signed items for the type of signature provided -- on the title page, or on a laid-in bookplate. (To search our listings on ABE, jump to our web site, www.kingdombks.com, and use the browse button there -- you can always search by author or title, and can also request that ABE search for signed material.)

And join us, please, in appreciating this added level of connection between mystery/crime authors and their readers. Thank you to the authors and readers!

We Met the Author and She/He Graciously Signed This Book ...

Dave and I recently spent four days with 1200 mystery lovers -- maybe a third of them authors! -- at this year's Bouchercon in Albany, NY.  It was a fantastic experience, and we'll think (and maybe write) about it for years to come, I'm sure.

We are especially grateful to the many kind and generous authors who took time to sign books for us. Some are for our own collection, and many are for Kingdom Books. If you treasure signed first edition mysteries, please do look through our ABE listings. Dave is adding more books each day.

Meanwhile, here are a few photos of some of the authors at work. Again, thank you!

Louise Penny

Tess Gerritsen

Margaret Maron

Matt Clemens and Max Allen Collins

Harlan Coben

Joe Lansdale

Lisa Brackmann (with coffee!), Cara Black, Juliet Grames

Sue Grafton

yours truly, Beth Kanell